Red Monarch

Red Monarch is a 1983 British TV film starring Colin Blakely as Joseph Stalin. It is directed by Jack Gold and features David Suchet as Lavrentiy Beria and David Threlfall as Stalin's son Vasily. Red Monarch is a dark comedy based on The Red Monarch: Scenes From the Life of Stalin a collection of sartirical short stories by the Russian author Yuri Krotkov. The film is an insight into Soviet politics and the interplay between Stalin and his lieute... more

Red Monarch is a 1983 British TV film starring Colin Blakely as Joseph Stalin. It is directed by Jack Gold and features David Suchet as Lavrentiy Beria and David Threlfall as Stalin's son Vasily. Red Monarch is a dark comedy based on The Red Monarch: Scenes From the Life of Stalin a collection of sartirical short stories by the Russian author Yuri Krotkov. The film is an insight into Soviet politics and the interplay between Stalin and his lieutenants, particularly Beria, during the last years of Stalin's rule. The Soviet rulers represent the "the banality of evil" as the lives of countless ordinary Russians are destroyed by the buffoonery of Stalin and his cronies. The reading of Yevgeny Yevtushenko's "The Heirs of Stalin" in the final scene warns that the threat of totalitarianism is constantly present. less